As announced last year, the Zappa Family Trust is preparing to bring Frank Zappa back to the stage for a tour featuring a performing hologram of the iconic musician, and now a promotional video for the tour, dubbed “The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa,” has been released.
The tour will take place in 2019—although no specific dates have been released—and will feature a band made up of Zappa collaborators Ray White, Mike Keneally, Scott Thunes, Robert Martin and Ed Mann, plus Joe Travers and special guests like Steve Vai, Ian Underwood, Lady Bianca, Napolean Murphy Brock and Arthur Barrow. The video and press release promise Zappa performance footage that has never been seen, even never-before-released music. The video also includes a short audio clip of Zappa mentioning a hologram at a show.
“The development of the ‘Bizarre World’ has been a herculean undertaking and an extremely emotional journey for me,” Ahmet Zappa says in the release. “Weirdly, it’s also been one of the most creatively satisfying projects that I have ever had the privilege of working on. It’s fascinating to me how into holograms my dad was and it’s unbelievable that we have Frank in his own words talking about it. The fact that we’re now finally able to technologically bring to life the ideas and concepts my father talked about so many years ago is astonishing. People’s minds, eyes and ears will be stunned by the crazy amounts of awesomeness they’ll be exposed to every night on this tour. For the first time in a long time Zappa fans will get to see and hear brand spanking new music performed by Frank with his live band and enjoy never before heard versions of their favorite songs, all while brain-melting visuals make them laugh, smile, and perhaps even cry. I truly can’t wait to share this epic experience with everyone and I’m thrilled that we’ll be doing 100 + dates around the world. So please fasten your concert-going seatbelts because things in the Zappa universe are about to get even more bizarre!!!”
Ahmet’s brother Dweezil, with whom the Zappa Family Trust has had a fraught relationship in recent years, responded to the original tour announcement last year (which included Ahmet mentioning how he’d love to see Dweezil be a part of the shows), saying, “I am not interested in participating in anything with an artificial version of my father on stage.”
More information will become available “in the coming months.” Watch the promo video below.
11 Comments comments associated with this post
shneezer
November 12, 2018 at 10:00 amTake this Las Vegas and leave it there to rot.
Maybe Barney and Big Bird will show up too……for some holographic dancing.
Frank lives forever on your stereo, wake up and crank it up!
larry
November 9, 2018 at 6:51 amI aint gonna squash it and you dont need to wash it.
PhuckDat
November 8, 2018 at 9:08 pmYou’ll love it.
It’s a way of liiiiiiife.
me
November 8, 2018 at 1:21 pmI’m embarrassed to say that though this sounds like such trash, I’ll probably go just to see the spectacle… if it’s not priced ridiculously…
Hag
November 8, 2018 at 12:05 pmWow. Ian Underwood…..Cannot see him being on board with this…Also what about Terry Bozzio and Chad Wackerman…
pm
November 8, 2018 at 10:53 amI’m in, as long as ticket prices are reasonable. Tired of same old Dweezil shows
Joe
November 8, 2018 at 9:46 amThis sounds awful, fuck Gail and Ahmed for what the did to dweezil and fuck them even more for doing this
Please
November 7, 2018 at 9:42 pmDweezil plays live and his band is incredible. This is a joke.
mary
November 7, 2018 at 6:56 pmand rubber….
larry
November 7, 2018 at 6:54 pmthats good alot of the boys in the crew love leather
mary
November 7, 2018 at 6:51 pmeh ha ha im into leather